After five blissful days of victory, the Pirates returned back to their normal ways Thursday afternoon and couldn’t complete the sweep of St. Louis.

Brian Burres pitched like, well, Brian Burres…not the guy we saw his last couple starts out. The Cards pounded him for four runs in less than three innings, and the bullpen didn’t fare much better. Albert Pujols homered twice in the rout.

Jeff Suppan picked up yet another victory against the Bucs, surrendering just one run on a Pedro Alvarez RBI double. It was a pretty bad day for the offense – only Neil Walker and Ronny Cedeno tallied multiple hits.

The Pirates now need to sweep the weekend series against Houston to finish with a winning record at PNC Park, and need to win out overall to avoid 100 losses.